Healthy People 2010,1 which lays out goals for the health of the U.S. population in the next decade, establishes two overarching aims: (1) to increase the quality and years of healthy life, and (2) to eliminate health disparities. Unfortunately, these aims are often in conflict. Many improvements in health care, including preventive care, that increase quality and years of healthy life will increase, not decrease, disparities. New technologies and information about prevention are more available to those with more education, income, and other resources. This differential access allows the more advantaged to enjoy the benefits more rapidly compared to the rest of the population. Thus, while improved health care and prevention have contributed to dramatic drops in mortality over time, these benefits have not been equally conferred, and larger gradients in mortality exist now than did earlier.